Plenty of blame to go around, but Boucher won't name names

Criticizing Ottawa Senators players these days is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Pick a player, any player.

From goaltender Craig Anderson to captain Erik Karlsson to any number of unproductive and inconsistent forwards, it’s easy to find fault and point fingers. Tuesday’s 8-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks was among the worst defeats of the season (maybe nothing can top the 5-0 stinker to the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 3), primarily because the Senators disappeared mentally in the second period.

“It was ugly out there,” centre Derick Brassard said Wednesday, in a colossal understatement.

For all that, however, coach Guy Boucher refuses to name names or call out those who have disappointed.

On Wednesday, he did allude to the team suffering a noticeable mental lapse when Anderson allowed the Blackhawks’ second goal, a long-range, bad angle shot from Patrick Sharp. Boucher also said the team “sabotaged” itself on a delay of game penalty after narrowing the Blackhawks 4-0 lead to 4-2. Boucher didn’t name the offender, but it was Zack Smith.

ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL?

Pushed by Postmedia on why the club continues to suffer extended mental breakdowns — allowing two or three quick goals in a hurry way too often — and whether that’s on the players and/or the leadership group, he didn’t single out any particular player or group.

“It’s always a team thing,” Boucher said. “I know some people wanted me to point fingers at some individuals (after Tuesday’s loss) and I don’t want to do that and I don’t do that.”

Boucher, who was facing a large Toronto media contingent at the club’s downtown hotel early Tuesday afternoon, adopted the win-as-a-team, lose-as-a-team mantra.

“It’s not just the players, it’s the staff and everybody and that’s the way I approach things. There’s always something I can do, always something my assistants can do and always something the players can do.”

We understand that the coach can’t publicly shame players and maintain the respect of his charges. But it’s painfully obvious that the mix of skill and leadership isn’t working. Good luck to GM Pierre Dorion in making the right moves for the future before the Feb. 26 trade deadline … Incidentally, there were 20 NHL scouts in attendance at Air Canada Centre on Wednesday, in addition to Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen.

DUCHENE FINDING HIS WAY

Matt Duchene will get away from it all during the club’s bye week. While he may have turned the corner statistically — three goals and an assist in three games before facing the Maple Leafs — the break should serve him well.

Given that the Senators entered Wednesday’s game with an 8-15-4 record since the three-way trade that took him away from Colorado, he has twisted himself into mental knots wondering where he fits in.

“We went through a hard stretch as a team,” he said. “When you go through that, sometimes you put too much pressure on yourself and I did that in the first 10 games. You’re getting a feel for the team and you wonder if you were a disruption and stuff like that, but it’s one of the things where the team was going through (a tough stretch) during the period I came in.”

The Avalanche, it should be noted, are 14-10-3 since the trade. The Nashville Predators, who acquired Kyle Turris from the Senators in the swap, have gone 17-6-4 since the deal went down.

MORE HAND MISERY FOR RYAN

Duchene lost his right winger, Bobby Ryan, in Tuesday’s loss to Chicago.

“It got worse and worse as the game went on and he couldn’t take it anymore,” Boucher said. “In the second period, it was hurting him and in the third period, he just couldn’t do it.”

Rather than break up all of the club’s other lines, Boucher opted to start Colin White on a unit with Duchene and Mike Hoffman against the Maple Leafs. White, who had previously played primarily as a fourth-line winger, has looked more than a tad nervous in games against Chicago and Tampa. It says here that he needs the freedom to make the odd mistake in order to make the type of play that could make him a big part of the club’s future.

If further rest or some kind of surgery can help protect Ryan from being in and out of the lineup for the rest of his career, the Senators have to seriously contemplate making such a decision. He has a salary cap hit of $7.25 million through the end of the 2021-22 season and he’s not going to be traded anywhere, given his damaged digits.

TAKING TIME WITH BORO

It sure sounds like there was plenty of internal discussion about bringing back hard-hitting defenceman Mark Borowiecki against the Maple Leafs. Ultimately, though, the decision was made to give him another week — the bye week — before bringing him back to game action … Here’s some good news about the club moving its AHL franchise from Binghamton to Belleville this season. It didn’t take much to get Filip Chlapik to Toronto to take Ryan’s roster spot … Ah, memories. By each allowing four goals Tuesday, Anderson and Mike Condon became the first Senators goaltending tandem to turn that trick since Ron Tugnutt and Mike Bales in 1996-97, according to Sportsnet Stats … The Senators met the Maple Leafs with an. 896 save percentage, on pace for the franchise’s worst numbers since the .889 save percentage of 1996-97.

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